Maybe the NHL will do away with fighting, maybe it won't -- but the standard line of response from people who want it to stay in the game has sprung a leak.

A day after a scary scene in Montreal -- Canadiens puncher George Parros tumbled over Colton Orr after a fight and smacked his face off the ice -- a few general managers and one hockey legend spoke out. They played the game. They are the game. And they're not media grinds or stats nerds.

Personally, I'm in both of these last two camps. I also love hockey, in part because it's fast and tough and physical, and believe that fights, if not purely necessary, are not the end of the world. That said, I'd also rather not see someone die on the ice, nor do I accept any theoretical purpose behind guys like Parros and Orr lining up twice in the same game for whatever reason. That's not the hockey I love.

I'd like to see more game misconducts. I'd also like to see individuals face larger financial penalties the more they fight. Maybe make it proportional to overall ice time and force out the designated punchers. But whatever -- I'm not In The Game.

The guys who spoke out on Wednesday, though? They are The Game. We'll go with Steve Yzerman first. He's one of the great players of all time. Shared the Red Wings' lineup with guys like Bob Probert, too. Now the GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Yzerman told TSN's Darren Dreger that the league needs to do more to incentivize against in-game bare-knuckle boxing.

"I believe a player should get a game misconduct for fighting," Yzerman said. "We penalize and suspend players for making contact with the head while checking in an effort to reduce head injuries yet we still allow fighting.

"We're stuck in the middle and need to decide what kind of sport do we want to be. Either anything goes and we accept the consequences or take the next step and eliminate fighting."

Yzerman's "stuck in the middle" line of reasoning can also be applied to one of this season's new rules, which tacks on another two minutes to the standard five-minute major when a player removes his helmet. That, toothless and milquetoast as it may be, prevents players from cracking their heads on the ice. Not their faces, though, as Parros proved.

Ray Shero of the Penguins and Jim Rutherford of the Hurricanes also voiced similar concerns. A bit after Dreger's story was published, Scotty Bowman tweeted similar thoughts: "I support views of Steve Yzerman, Ray Shero and Jim Rutherford on their opinions for addressing most fighting issues. Poll all players."

Bowman's name is on the Stanley Cup 12 times. Oops, 13. Had to look it up. It's easy to lose track.

As for that player poll, the most recent put 98 percent against a ban. Their presence matters in a legal sense; any rule changes go through them, too. And it's indeed their lives -- or a portion of them, at least.

That fact alone -- that a majority of the players are still in favor, and are highly unlikely to vote their peers or themselves out of the game -- means that an outright ban isn't likely. There are other factors in place, too; fan preference, or the perception of such; the differentiation factor; inertia; all of those mean that fighting, in some form, is likely to stick around.

Plenty of people are going to be happy about that, and that's their right. In a perfect world, though, they'd be honest about the reality of their situation: the impact of fights on the game is, at best, debatable ; the role of the one-dimensional enforcer is relatively new; and the well-being of real, live human beings is at stake.

They enjoy watching it in person, on TV, on the league's official video player -- that's what's important to them. They like it. Period. A growing number of other people -- the kind whose opinion they say counts the most -- don't so much anymore.